Buffalo native Peter Case came to notoriety for the power-pop
of his California-based bands the Nerves (“Hanging on the
Telephone”) and the Plimsouls (“A Million Miles Away”), but
there’s something very hometown-true about his work ethic.
To wit: He squeezed an emergency double-bypass surgery in
between his 2007 Grammy-nominated album Let Us Now Praise
Sleepy John and this year’s rough-edged blues gem Wig!
Truly, he is through-and-through a rock & roller, even
if his latter-day material has tended toward the acoustic-folk
side of the musical spectrum. Case brings his great collection
of guitars and songs, including the one from Valley Girl,
to Albany this week. (Nov. 5, 9 PM, $15, 17 New Scotland
Ave., Albany, 432-6572)

The
Alternate Routes, the Kin

Jillian’s,
Friday

Musicians can be superstitious folk. Take the Alternate Routes,
for example. The group signed with Vanguard Records on Thanksgiving
morning, 30 years to the day after The Last Waltz was
filmed, a movie the group found influential around the time
they formed at Fairfield University. What could it mean? Well,
if you look closely at 36:17, Rick Danko appears to mouth
the word “Brooklawn” to Levon Helm, which was the name of
a house in which members of the Alternate Routes lived during
the recording of the Watershed EP, so, clearly . .
. they’re doing all right for themselves. Their fourth studio
disc, Lately, comes out this fall. They’ll be supported
by Aussie brothers the Kin. (Nov. 5, 9 PM, $13, 59 N. Pearl
St., Albany, 432-1997)

Dimmu
Borgir

Northern
Lights, Saturday

Just as volcanoes influenced much of Scandinavian mythology,
they have also inspired heavy metal. Norway’s symphonic black
metal band Dimmu Borgir even borrow their moniker from an
Icelandic lava-gusher. The similarities don’t end there: Just
as a volcano itself changes form and shape over the course
of many years, influencing the landscape around it with each
eruption, Dimmu Borgir have gone through many transformations
(guitarist Silenoz and vocalist Shagrath are the only constants
of the band’s 17-year career) and influenced the black metal
scene with each new release, including this year’s Abrahadabra.Get heavy when the band play Clifton Park on Saturday
with Dawn of Ashes, plus fellow Norwegians Enslaved and Blood
Red Throne. (Nov. 6, 7:30 PM, $20, 1208 Route 146, Clifton
Park, 371-0012)

Elizabeth
Cook

Elizabeth
Cook

The
Linda, Monday

It takes balls to call an album Balls. But that’s what
Elizabeth Cook did with her fourth, Rodney Crowell- produced
record, and she found her biggest commercial success to date
as a result. It also takes balls to sing a decent song about
a car, and “El Camino,” from her latest record, Welder,
is a decent song about a car. The album, produced by Don Was
and released in May, is named for her father, who learned
to weld while serving time in a Georgia prison. And when Cook
turns the car-song paradigm on its head by telling an unwanted
suitor that his car is creepy—“and not in a gangster kind
of way but in a perv kind of way”—it’s one of country’s finest
moments this year. (Nov. 8, 8 PM, $17, 339 Central Ave.,
Albany, 465-5233)

Pink
Martini

The
Egg, Monday

There’s something deliciously louche about the lounge orchestra
Pink Martini. Co-founder Charles Lauderdale famously said
he wanted them to sound like the United Nations house band
circa 1962. We think they’d be more appropriate as the dance
orchestra for a James Bond supervillain: “Welcome to SPECTRE’s
Strychnine Lounge, Dr. No!” Their breakthrough song, “Sympathetique,”
celebrated laziness; the lizardly “Hey Eugene” found lovely,
languid frontwoman China Forbes trying to jog the memory of
an erstwhile one-night stand; their version of “Brazil” made
us think of Carmen Miranda and Terry Gilliam. And if
that doesn’t convince you Pink Martini are disreputably hip,
consider this: They’re huge in France. (Nov. 8, 7:30 PM,
$39.50-$75, Empire State Plaza, Albany, 473-1845)

Also
Noted

Hot
Club of Detroit

The
Charles R. Wood Theater in Glens Falls hosts the
CD release show for the John Lennon Song Project
tonight (Thursday); the seven-piece band is led
by Rex Fowler of Aztec Two-Step and Tom Dean of
Devonsquare (8 PM, $22, 798-9663). . . . Hot
Club of Detroit will close out the A Place
For Jazz season at the Whisperdome in Schenectady
tomorrow (Friday, 8 PM, $15, $7 students, 393-4011).
. . . It’s a big week for big bills: Canadian
deathcore band Ion Dissonance play Bogie’s
Friday night as part of a Malus Clothing-sponsored
tour that also features Arsonists Get All the
Girls, Within the Ruins, And Hell
Followed With, Structures, and Destruction
of a Rose (7:30 PM, $12, 482-4393). . . .
On the Proctors mainstage Saturday: an oldies
show, starring Lou Christie, the Tokens,
the Duprees, and the Drifters (7:30
PM, $34.75-$49.75, 346-6204). . . . Also Saturday
is the fourth year of the Experience Hendrix Tour,
appearing at the Palace Theatre; the 2010 edition
features Living Colour, Steve Vai,
Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Susan Tedeschi,
and about a dozen more guitar greats paying tribute
to the late legend (7 PM, $39.50-$79.50, 465-3334).
. . . Also Saturday, feminist folk pioneer Cris
Williamson is at the Eighth Step at Proctors
(7:30 PM, $24, 346-6204). . . . George Winston
comes to the Charles R. Wood Theater on Sunday
in support of Love Will Come, his second
tribute album to Vince Guaraldi—and yes, it contains
several songs from the Charlie Brown songbook
(7:30 PM, $48, 798-9663). . . . Chicago-based
jam band Cornmeal are at Red Square on
Wednesday, joined by special guests Jatoba
(8 PM, $10, 465-0444)